Saturday, July 5, 2008

July 5th - morning

The Basin fire has now burned 68,712 acres and is 5% contained. The fire is still actively burning on every front though overnight activity was low due to relatively high humidity. You can find the current Inciweb map here. The fire is now the #2 priority in the state with the Santa Barbara fire taking precedence.

Hotter and drier conditions are still forecast for tomorrow.

The firefighters dropped over 50 loads of water on a spillover into the Church Creek drainage yesterday and that now appears to be out. It seems that within the overall strategy of letting the fire burn within the big box, the Incident Command is attempting to manage the speed with which the fire spreads.

Several fire crews from further afield have joined the crews working in the local area. From Indiana, Vermont and other colder eastern states they were reported to be working hard to acclimatise to the heat and terrain. There are currently firefighters from 40 states working on the fire.

The item recorded yesterday at Tassajara by the NBC crew should be shown on the Nightly News tonight. You can see the footage after the news on the Santa Barbara fire here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The NBC news item on the fires, with a mention of Tassajara, can be viewed online now: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#25544603